A student at the London School of Economics who was on the trip to North Korea where a BBC documentary was secretly filmed accused the university today of “making a mountain out of a molehill”.

Mila Akimova, 21, an international relations student, said she had been fully informed about the risks of being involved with the undercover film.

The university has accused the BBC of deceiving the 10 students about the risks of agreeing to go along with a cover story in which Panorama journalist John Sweeney, posing as a professor, and a cameraman secretly filmed in the country.

The programme was watched by 5.1 million on Monday night. Three students and the parents of another have complained that they did not realise the full extent of the danger of being involved in the documentary until they were already on the tour last month. However, six others, including Ms Akimova, have accused the LSE of mishandling the story in its condemnation of the BBC.

Ms Akimova said she had decided to go on the trip as a “once in a lifetime opportunity”. She had twice been told that an undercover journalist would be accompanying them and that there was a risk of being arrested, detained or banned from returning.

“The LSE obviously has to protect its reputation because it’s name was used, but I think if they hadn’t made such a big noise about it, not so many people would have found out about it,” she said. “They’ve made a mountain out of a molehill.” She said the students had been given the opportunity to drop out of the £2,000 trip while they were still in London, but that only one student had decided not to go for “personal reasons”.

Of the trip, she said: “No one reacted badly, there weren’t any moments of tension. It was all fine. From what I saw no one disagreed with what John was doing, everyone was very chilled out. I knew what was going on, I didn’t feel threatened.”

The BBC has insisted that the students were informed about the plan and the risks by Sweeney’s wife Tomiko Newson, a former LSE student.

Robin Hoggard, the LSE’s head of external relations, responding to the open letter of complaint from the six students, said: “We believe you were told enough [by the BBC] to get you into trouble but not enough to let you make an informed decision about the risks. All 10 of you were deliberately deceived, by the BBC’s own admission. You weren’t in a position to give informed consent.”